“Are you sure you aren’t rushing things?” He also stood.
Her eyes went dark. “It’s time to step things up,” she replied. “I want to finish Sugar’s training as soon as possible. I want her saddle ready for you.” She started for the door, but he stopped her by grabbing her arm.
“What’s going on inside that beautiful brain of yours?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she replied quickly...too quickly.
“Greta, I know you too well. Something is bothering you.”
She released a tremulous sigh. “It’s the waiting. It’s the wondering when Alice is going to come for me. I want to make sure that Sugar is comfortable with you before something bad happens. I want to make sure that Sugar is okay with you if I’m no longer here.” Her voice shattered a bit on her last words.
“Oh, honey.” He pulled her into his arms and tight against his chest. “You aren’t going anywhere. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. You’ll have all the time you need with Sugar and with me.”
She snuggled into him and he felt a shiver sweep through her. He hadn’t realized until this moment just how much the tense anticipation of an attack from Alice had been weighing on her mind. It irritated him that he hadn’t seen it, because he felt it in himself.
“You know that sooner or later she’s going to strike again,” she said, her voice half-muffled as she buried her head in the hollow of his throat.
“And I’ll be ready,” he said firmly. “I’ve got this, Greta. As long as we stay together and remain smart, she’ll never have a chance to get close to you in any way.”
She finally looked up at him. “And how long are you willing to do this? She’s shown us that she has patience. What if she doesn’t do anything for another week...or a month...or a year?”
He shook his head. “Right now we take things day by day. That’s all we can do.” He cupped her face with his hands and a swell of emotion pressed tight against his chest. At the moment she was so fragile.
How he wanted to find the right words to lay her fears to rest. He wanted to remove the darkness from her eyes forever. But he didn’t have the words to soothe her fears, and as she stepped out of his embrace, a hint of the darkness still remained.
“Of course, you’re right. I can only deal with this day by day. I don’t know what will happen in the future and I only have the here and now. Let’s head out,” she said briskly.
Minutes later they were back at the corral, where Sugar greeted Greta at the gate. During the past week the horse had allowed Greta to stroke her nose and her neck and run her hands over various areas of Sugar’s body. The bond of complete trust had been established.
“Come inside with me,” Greta said. “She has to get used to not only you but men and people in general.”
Tyler nodded and opened the gate. He stepped inside and immediately Sugar backed up, putting distance between herself and Tyler. At least she didn’t back up to the far side of the corral, he thought.
Even though he was inside the wooden enclosure, he remained vigilant as to what was going on outside the corral. He couldn’t give Sugar his complete, undivided attention, because he was determined to see danger coming before it arrived.
Thankfully, Greta instructed him to walk the perimeter of the corral, just as she had done the first time she’d worked with Sugar.
That allowed him to remain focused on his number one task of protecting Greta. The conversation they’d just shared had shown him that Greta suffered from dark thoughts she hadn’t talked to him about...thoughts where she was killed by Alice...thoughts where she was no longer on this earth.
She worked with a sense of urgency, fearing her own death at any given moment.
Tyler had refused to allow his thoughts to go that dark, but now it was as if somehow their conversation had drawn the darkness closer.
* * *
It had been a long day, yet Greta found sleep elusive. It had also been an emotional-roller-coaster kind of day for her. She had no idea why she’d had so little control over her emotions lately, but they had been all over the place.
It had started when she’d held baby Alexander in her arms and wondered if she’d ever have an opportunity to hold her own baby. Or would Alice take her life before she ever got the chance to experience marriage to the man of her dreams and the joy of pregnancy and the miracle of birth?
Her emotions had once again reeled out of control when she and Tyler had had the brief conversation in her room that morning.
It was mostly due to her foolish, foolish heart. When he’d talked about loving her laughter and loving spending time with her and all the other wonderful things he’d said, she’d anticipated that he would end his statement with a declaration of love for her.
I love you. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted to hear those words from him until they hadn’t come. Rather than make her feel better, what he’d said had given her a heartache to go along with the fear that had been a constant companion.
It was stupid. She was stupid for allowing herself to fall in love with him. But during the weeks they’d spent nearly every minute together, she’d thought they’d fit together so perfectly, not just physically but on an emotional and intellectual level, as well.
They shared the same sense of humor and he fit so seamlessly into the family. They wanted the same things out of life. He’d spoken of loving so many things about her, but he hadn’t said that he was in love with her.
She turned over on her back and stared up at the darkened bedroom ceiling. Tonight she had no desire to sneak next door and sleep in his arms. That would be the ultimate act of a fool.
She realized she had to somehow begin to distance herself from him. She had to find a way to deal with him and not love him anymore. At the moment that felt like an impossible thing to do. How did you make yourself fall out of love when the man you were in love with hadn’t done anything wrong?
Tyler had been protective and supportive and had proved himself to be everything she wanted in a man. She certainly didn’t want any false proclamations of love from him. She didn’t want him to tell her something he didn’t feel. She just wished he were as much in love with her as she was with him.
With a deep sigh of frustration she sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. She couldn’t fall asleep with her brain spinning so fast.
There were times in the past she’d found herself unable to fall asleep for one reason or another and had discovered that playing a game or surfing the web sometimes made her sleepy.
She pulled her tablet from the drawer in the nightstand and swiped her finger across the surface to wake it up. She had several horse-trainer bloggers that she followed and she went to those pages first, always eager to learn something new that would help her better work with horses.
She read the blogs and found nothing of real interest and then on impulse decided to do a search on Tyler Stanton. Tons of results came up.
She started checking out each site and was surprised to learn that he’d been named Businessman of the Year for the past two years by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. He was also heavily involved in many charities and sat on the boards of several. Many of the hits she’d received were about Stanton Oil, with full histories of how his great-grandfather had started the company.
There were pictures of him and a variety of women attending social events. The women were all beautiful, decked out in designer gowns and with a polished appearance that Greta knew she’d never be able to attain no matter how hard she tried. She just wasn’t that woman and had no desire to be.
Was this the kind of woman he was looking for as a wife? The socialite who would be an asset as a corporate wife? A woman who didn’t own a pair of dusty jeans or cowboy boots but could throw a flawless cocktail party or business dinner?
Was he playing with the tomboy as a change of pace, only to ultimately choose the kind of woman she could never be? Her heart squeezed tight at the thought.
There was no question
in her mind that he cared about her; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been here. He wouldn’t have been playing her bodyguard if he weren’t somehow emotionally involved with her, but to what level?
Maybe she was expecting too much too fast. Just because she’d recognized and embraced her love for him didn’t mean he was at the same emotional place as her. It had been less than a month since they’d begun any kind of a relationship. Maybe he just needed more time to fall in love with her.
She was overthinking things, focused on Tyler perhaps in an effort to not think about her twin sister and what might or might not occur.
She was about to close down the tablet when another site about Tyler caught her attention. She clicked on it and saw the official announcement of Tyler’s engagement to Michelle Willoughby.
Michelle Willoughby was a stunning blonde. She had dainty features and appeared petite. No colt-like long legs on her, Greta guessed. Her eyes were blue and her lips were red and she exuded self-confidence.
The engagement announcement included a follow-up article, and when she clicked on that link, she gasped in surprise.
The article was dated two weeks after the engagement announcement and the headline read Brotherly Love: The End of an Engagement. It was accompanied by a photo of Mark and Michelle sharing a passionate kiss outside an Oklahoma City nightclub.
There was no article attached, but the photo said it all. Greta stared at it for a long time, her brain once again racing with thoughts...very negative thoughts.
She shut down the tablet and placed it back in her drawer and then shut off her light and curled up on her side. It was obvious from what she’d just seen that Mark had been responsible for the breakup of the relationship between Tyler and Michelle, a fact Tyler hadn’t mentioned to her.
And Tyler had played a hand in the breakup of her and Mark’s relationship. He hadn’t known at the time he bailed her out of jail that she had already decided to break things off with Mark.
Was she Tyler’s revenge against his brother?
Had he formed a relationship with her because it was some sort of payback for Michelle and his broken engagement? The possibility thundered in her heart and made her sick to her stomach.
Had it all been lies? All the words of caring, the sweet seduction in his eyes, in his kisses—had they all been a calculated effort to avenge a wrong done to him in the past?
Was she just a pawn Tyler had used to get under Mark’s skin? She wanted to confront him right this minute, but she knew he was asleep, and besides, she needed more time to process what she’d just learned.
Her first instinct was to be angry and she didn’t want to wake him up in the middle of the night for a wrathful confrontation. That wasn’t her style. She needed to calm herself and think things through before having a rational discussion with him.
She’d talk to him first thing in the morning and hoped that if he lied to her, she would be able to discern it in his beautiful blue eyes.
She must have finally fallen asleep, for when she opened her eyes, she looked at her clock on the nightstand and saw that it was almost six, earlier than she usually awoke.
There was no way she was going to go back to sleep, as her head immediately began to spin with thoughts of Tyler and what was the best way to approach him and have the conversation she needed to have.
Would he confess that he’d just used her as payback? Or would he tell her that his feelings for her were real and had nothing to do with an engagement that had happened a couple of years ago?
She got out of bed and dressed in her jeans and a rust-colored flannel shirt. What she needed was a little time alone to get her thoughts together. Surely she’d be safe just going from the house to the corral for a few minutes to see Sugar. She pulled on her brown suede jacket and left her room.
Tyler’s bedroom door was closed and she crept by it as quietly as possible. She definitely didn’t want his company until she was ready to face him...and she didn’t feel quite ready yet.
She wasn’t sure if it might be better to talk to him after the Thanksgiving Day meal planned for three that afternoon. She didn’t want to in any way ruin things for her mother, who had worked so hard to assure a successful family gathering.
Maybe it would be best to just hold it all in until after the festivities were over and all the members of the extended family had gone home.
Thankfully, she saw nobody as she stepped out of the door and into the cold predawn air. She looked around, checking for anyone in the area, and then made a beeline to Sugar, who greeted her at the gate with a soft whinny.
“Hey, girl,” Greta said softly and stroked the velvet of her nose. At least she didn’t have to worry about Sugar having ulterior motives. She had fallen in love with the horse and the feeling had become mutual.
The sun had yet to make an appearance, but the sky was pink and orange in the east, a heralding of the imminent sunrise. She decided to go ahead and fill the hay bin so that Sugar would be taken care of for the day. She might even add some grain as a special dinner for Sugar for the holiday.
She’d told Tyler she’d be busy this morning helping her mother with any last-minute details, and once the family arrived, she’d have no time to be out at the corral.
She stepped into the barn and was just about to grab a nearby hay bale when Alice stepped out of the shadows, a gun in her hand. “Hello, sis. Have you missed me?”
“Alice.” The name fell from Greta’s lips at the same time a wave of horror overtook her.
Chapter 13
“So you know my name,” Alice replied and motioned Greta deeper into the barn with the barrel of her gun. “I’ll warn you, if you scream, I’ll shoot you right now.”
Greta stared at her. It was bizarre to stand in the near darkness of the barn and look at a face that was exactly like her own.
Alice had the same build as Greta, tall and slender. Her hair was also worn in the same style as Greta’s, dark waves that fell to her shoulders. She wore filthy jeans and a stained pink sweatshirt.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Greta said, glad that her voice didn’t betray the utter terror that nearly gutted her.
“Don’t lie to me,” Alice replied sharply. “I’m sure I was the last person you wanted to meet this morning or on any other morning.”
“Why, Alice? Why have you done the things you’ve done? Why have you tried to kill me?”
Greta had little hope of anyone rushing to her rescue. When she’d left her bedroom, she’d closed the door behind her. Even if Tyler awoke early, he wouldn’t bother her as long as her door was closed. She usually didn’t make an appearance for the day until after seven. It was far too early for anyone to know that she was missing from her bed.
She knew that she was in deep trouble, but she wanted answers. She wanted to understand why this was all happening. Why did Alice hate her so much? How could she without even knowing her?
“Why have I tried to kill you?” Alice repeated the question. Her eyes narrowed. “Because it should have been me. Your father chose the wrong twin to bring home, and for the last twenty-six years you’ve been living the life I should have had.”
“But killing me won’t change that,” Greta protested desperately. “Why don’t you put the gun down and we can talk about things.” Greta’s heart beat rapidly and her knees shook unsteadily with fear.
She’d been so foolish to come out here alone. She should have never taken such a chance.
“Talk about things?” Alice emitted a harsh, ugly laugh. “There’s nothing to talk about. Get to the back of the barn. I have a little surprise for you.” She wielded the gun like a lethal pointer. “And you can’t tell me that if I don’t do what I’m here to do, everything is going to be wonderful. I’ve already killed a man and there’s no way two of us can coexist in this world.”
A little surprise for you. Those simple words had fired a new sense of terror inside Greta. The surprise could only be a bad one.
Alice stepped
close enough to prod Greta with the barrel of the gun. She was near enough for Greta to see the shine of madness in her hazel-green eyes, smell and feel the evil that emanated from her.
Greta stumbled over a bale of hay as she moved backward. “It was just a matter of fate that he took me,” she said desperately. “Nobody is to blame except our birth mother, who decided to sell one of us.”
“Our birth mother is dead,” Alice said flatly. “And what a fine mother she was. I’m sorry you didn’t get to experience my childhood of being dragged from one seedy motel room to another, watching dear Mother smoke crack or do whatever drug she could get her hands on. I wish you’d been there to be hungry, to be cold...to be so afraid of what might happen next.”
Tears sprang to Greta’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Alice. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“It’s okay. I’m young and I have plenty of time left to enjoy the good life. At least it was nice of dear old Mom to tell me about you before she croaked. Take off your clothes.”
“What?” Greta stared at her, fear still pounding her heart at a sickening pace. Surely she had misunderstood.
“You heard me. Strip down to your underwear.”
“But why?”
“You won’t need clothes in that.” Alice pulled a flashlight from her back pocket and shone it on a pine box shoved in a corner of the barn’s very back wall.
Greta nearly fell to her knees. It was not just a simple pine box. It was a coffin—her coffin. “Alice, please don’t do this.” Hot tears began to splash on Greta’s cheeks.
“It’s my turn. You had enough time as a Colton. Now it’s my time. Get those clothes off before I lose my patience and just shoot you now.”
Greta’s fingers trembled violently as she clumsily unfastened her flannel shirt. At the same time Alice managed to work her pink sweatshirt over her head without ever moving the gun pointed at Greta’s center.
She tossed the sweatshirt aside and grabbed the flannel shirt from Greta. “Now the jeans,” she said as she put on Greta’s shirt.
Now it was clear in Greta’s head exactly what Alice’s sick plan entailed. She was going to put Greta in the pine box to die and then she intended to become Greta, taking over her family and her life.
The Colton Bodyguard Page 16